MIDDLESEX TWP - A traffic stop for littering landed three people in trouble with the law on drug charges.

Patrolman Bryan Costanzo said he was parked in an unmarked car on the side of Route 8 in Middlesex Township when he spotted an unknown object thrown out a passenger-side window of a vehicle that passed him.

He pulled over the driver, Ryan M. Mazzanti, 35, of West Sunbury, at Route 8 and Browns Hill Road. Mazzanti's girlfriend, Kelly L. Hovis, 35, of West Sunbury, a front-seat passenger, admitted she threw the object out her window. She claimed it was a gum wrapper.

Costanzo later learned that the backseat passenger, Sean R. Richards, 34, of Harmony, was wanted on a bench warrant. He was arrested on that warrant.

Back at the vehicle, which Hovis owns, Costanzo caught the whiff of what he believed was marijuana. He searched the vehicle and found a bag of suspected marijuana in a book bag.

Also in the book bag was a separate bag containing a suspected heroin shooting kit — two hypodermic needles, a cooking spoon, an empty bag of suspected heroin and several straws with an unknown white powder.

On the back seat floor board, according to a police report, the officer uncovered more suspected marijuana that was hidden inside a cigarette pack.

Mazzanti only admitted that the marijuana in the book bag was his, Costanzo said. He and his passengers denied that the suspected marijuana in the back seat and the other drug contraband belonged to them.

Costanzo later returned to the scene where he had noticed the object thrown out the suspects' vehicle. On the side of the road, he said, he found an empty stamp bag of suspected heroin.

Mazzanti and Richards are both charged with possession of a controlled substance and drug paraphernalia. Hovis is charged with possession of drug paraphernalia.

Additionally, Mazzanti is charged with driving with a suspended license-DUI related, driving without a license and littering on a road